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Eustace Cotter
In The Case of the Remarkable Perfume, Eustace Cotter was a British explorer who sought the help of Scotland Yard to stake a claim to a valuable botanical discovery. When Biggles first met Cotter, he observed that his skin had a "curious pallor, a sort of neutral tint, that is so often the result of living in an unhealthy part of the tropics". This was only to be expected as Cotter was an explorer who specialised in collecting aromatic guns and oils from which perfumes were made. For this purpose, he had spent much time travelling in tropical jungles. Financed by a well-known British firm, "Goray", Cotter had come back from British Guiana where he had discovered a small pale blue orchid which yield an exquisite aroma. In his judgment, the first country which produced such a perfume commercially stood to profit by at least twenty million pounds. Unfortunately, Cotter had found the orchid at the wrong time of the year. The seeds were not ripe and thus unsuitable for culturing. He was thus obliged to plan a return to that spot of the jungle again. To make things worse, he found that he had been betrayed by one Ramon, the leader of the porters he had hired on his expedition. Ramon realised the value of the discovery and planned to strike out on his own. Nearing civilisation, Ramon deserted Cotter's expedition. Cotter later learnt that Ramon had approached a foreign firm which had financed him to go back and collect the seeds from the orchids which they had discovered. In a quandry, Cotter approached the British authorities. The Board of Trade and the Colonial Office both felt that Cotter's proposition was vitally important to Britain's export market and passed the case on to the Air Police, believing that it could help. Biggles was despatched to transport Cotter by air in order to beat Ramon and secure a prior claim to the discovery of the orchid seeds. The air expedition went smoothly at first and Biggles and his Air Police crew arrived at the site of the orchid plants in their Scud amphibian without incident. However when Ginger and Cotter went deep into the jungle to collect the orchid seeds, they bumped into Ramon who had also arrived by air. Ramon and his pilot Joe held Ginger and Cotter at gunpoint and seized the bag of seeds which they had collected and then their way back to their aircraft. Ginger and Cotter dashed back to their own aircraft to report to Biggles but met Bertie on the way. Bertie told them Biggles' orders were to ensure the seeds were collected and so they returned to the orchid plants and filled a second bag. Back on their aircraft, Cotter must have wondered why Biggles seemed so unconcerned and casual about Ramon's intervention. Biggles revealed that Ramon had left his aircraft unattended. Biggles had stolen onboard and had removed the spark plugs of its engine in case Ramon gave trouble. After Cotter assured Biggles that Ramon was an experienced jungle traveller and could make his way back on foot, Biggles took off. Ramon would take six weeks to reach civilisation. This would give Cotter ample time to register the claim for his discovery. Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:Air Police era characters